When I took my Tech and General (both passed) the VE's convinced me to try the Extra even though I had not studied the material... since it was "free" and I had the time, I took the test. I was shocked that I only failed my 5 questions. There were almost no pure math questions in my test. There were some that required estimating and there may have been one that looked like I would need to calculate... but not that bad.

I am studying now and will take it again in Oct. I am pretty confident I can pass judging by what I saw and my previous experience. I am also using HamTestOnline as my primary source. I really like the links to more info on given subjects.

There were almost no pure math questions in my test. There were some that required estimating and there may have been one that looked like I would need to calculate... but not that bad.

I was actually counting on the math questions to make up for my abysmal knowledge of electronics - but as everyone has said, there aren't very many math questions - no differential equations, no calculus, and no complex arithmetic.

And even though I actually _like_ math, I used some of the tricks mentioned above to save time and avoid stupid misteaks...

There were almost no pure math questions in my test. There were some that required estimating and there may have been one that looked like I would need to calculate... but not that bad.

I was actually counting on the math questions to make up for my abysmal knowledge of electronics - but as everyone has said, there aren't very many math questions - no differential equations, no calculus, and no complex arithmetic.

And even though I actually _like_ math, I used some of the tricks mentioned above to save time and avoid stupid misteaks...

KK6DWD

I took the extra last night and passed fairly easily. I remember 2 math questions. I was kind of bummed as I had expected more. But when you look at the sections, many have no math so it can be the luck of the question pool.

Passed mine as well on Sat... and again, only a few math questions and if you can estimate, you can get those as well since it is multiple choice. They make a couple of them odviously wrong and 2 close to the answer. You can usually noodle out the correct answer without calculating anything. That may be bad for a math wiz, but it worked well for my knowladge base.

On most of the tests including commercial it has been my experience that if you really understand the equation and what is going on, you won't even need the calculator.Regards,Dick KH2G (Ham extra and was Radiotelephone first which is now the general radiotelephone)

Got my Tech and General a week apart this past Spring, passed the Extra exam today. I studied Gordo's book for about 30min a day for 3 weeks, and also took the practice exams on QRZ. Learning CW is my next thing to tackle!

I applied the rule of using minimal power to get the signal out and took the Extra test today with minimal time spent on learning. It paid off: passed with 74%. Not one millisecond wasted

That said, count me in with those who said this was the hardest test they ever took. Mechanical problems to solve? In my sleep. Building antennas? If you give me a plan, sure. But electronics? What's that? I will always only be a CW operator and never more in this hobby, but give me credit for striving to be good at it.

That said, count me in with those who said this was the hardest test they ever took.

Whether the tests are hard or not depends a lot on your background and preparation. I took the Tech and General in a single sitting and the followed that with the Advanced and Extra. Since my background was Engineering, none of them were very hard. But for the 13 and 20 WPM Morse tests you had to prepare. And I did.

Probably the hardest test I ever took was the final for Calc 4. There was only one problem, and we were given two weeks to solve it.

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